Written about 15 months ago but goes a long way towards explaining McTominay's unusual route into the first team, without ever impressing in the U18s or U23s.
http://www.manutd.com/en/News-And-F...n-from-Jesse-Lingard-and-Marcus-Rashford.aspx
I was listening to a podcast a few weeks ago, featuring Duncan Castles, in which he discussed the Pogba situation and suggested that Mourinho was considering using McTominay to balance the midfield, since Pogba wanted to focus his energies on attacking; which turned out to be surprisingly accurate.
I suspect if you add the contents of the old article on the official website, with Castles' insider info from either Mourinho or one of the coaching staff, you can perhaps get a sense of the development that is obvious to those who get to see the players train.
When various U23 players joined first team training towards the end of last season due to the injury situation, it is clear from the team selections that Axel Tuanzebe was miles ahead of the others, then came Scott and Demi Mitchell, as both were on the bench for several PL games prior to the Palace game.
Axel, Scott and Demi all went on the pre-season tour. It would appear that the original plan was for Scott to go on loan, with several articles suggesting Wolves were close to arranging a loan deal. Then Andreas Pereira decided that he was unlikely to get sufficient playing time here and would rather go on loan to Valencia, so Scott stayed.
Scott's first appearance this season came as a sub against Burton in the League Cup in late September. The team selections show that he was behind Herrera, Fellaini and Carrick. Then he started against Swansea away in the League Cup and Benfica at home in the CL, largely so we could rest the few fit midfield players we had. That pattern, of McTominay featuring in the easiest fixtures, continued until Sevilla away.
Now a risk averse manager like Mourinho does not select an inexperienced youngster in such a match, unless something has happened behind the scenes; McTominay has forced his way into contention, through his performances in training and his ability to follow instructions in matches.